how to combine multiple mp3 files into 1 file with mp3direct cut without transcoding?

how to combine multiple mp3 files into 1 file with mp3direct cut?

good evening. i have read that its possible to combine multiple mp3 files into 1 file using mp3 direct cut WITHOUT transcoding.

for example, can i take a 128 cbr kbps mp3, another 192 kbps cbr mp3, and a final 3rd high VBR mp3 and combine them into 1 mp3 file WITHOUT transcoding, using mp3 direct cut?

if not, what program can do this?

i know this is possible with the same CBR settings, because you can do it with virtual dub. you can append 2 .avi files with the same audio bittrate and direct stream copy the audio with no transcoding. however, this method is tedious and only supports same CBR settings.

Re: how to combine multiple mp3 files into 1 file with mp3direct cut without transcod

Quote:

Originally posted by nukesgoboom if not, what program can do this?

I guess you could use AlbumWrap.
It combines multiple mp3's into one mp3 file,
without transcoding or altering any tag information.
And it doesn't matter what bitrate the files are,
nor does it matter whether they are CBR or VBR or ABR.
The result is one mp3 with _ALBW added to the name.
Example: mymusicfiles_ALBW.mp3.
And AlbumWrap'd files will play in any mp3 player.
Later if you want, you can unwrap them back to the original single mp3's,
just like they were when you wrapped them.

mp3repacker sounds great but im too much of a noob to know how to use command line .exe files. when i double click them, they open and close really fast. im sure i have to go to start/run or something, but i dont know what to type at that point.

thanks for the suggestion though. and i will try album wrap allthogh too bad its not freeware, what a shame. thanks though i will try.

The following solution requires a wave editor (I use EAC, but any with the required capability will do), and will incur two transcodes, one from MP3 to WAV, and the other back to MP3. So there will be a risk of taking a sound quality hit (as the second transcode is to lossy, at least a second time in the life of the track), but in my experience it's not enough to worry about.

1. Transcode the MP3s to WAV.

2. Open each WAV file in Exact Audio Copy, or any other wave editor.

3. Zoom in on the end of each file, and cut off all empty frames. NOTE: This will not be precise, but it doesn't have to be. I've done it many times and ended up consistently with editing well below the threshold of perceptability. I.E., if you can't hear the gap at all in the final product, then you've done it right.

Automatically? Not that I know of. But doing it as I described with any capable WAV editing tool is really not as hard as it sounds, even with no computer savvy. Using it, I've spliced ten pairs of tracks inside ten minutes.

Why do you want to do this? Gapless playback? There are MP3 input plugins that provide this capability. To have both tracks always play together (the second after the first) when you're playing a playlist on shuffle containing both tracks? For this, you'd indeed have to have both tracks spliced together.

Unless there's some kind of plugin - or a feature for an already existing plugin like Jump-To-File - that enables two tracks to be marked as belonging together*, so that they'll always play one after the other when Winamp is shuffling a playlist. Then all you'd need is gapless playback, as previously described.